Genesis 6:1-3
(1) And it came to be, when men began to increase on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
(2) that the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men, that they were good. And they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
(3) And יהוה said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever in his going astray. He is flesh, and his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.
Before I understood and took a side in the "49 or 50 Year Jubilee-increment" controversy, I was sold-out on the idea that there would only be 120 Jubilees before the coming of Messiah. This is because 120 multiplied by 50 comes out to be exactly 6,000 years, while 120 multiplied by 49 comes out to be 5880 years. Previously, I had already embraced a paradigm that perceived the age of man (without Messiah) to only last 6,000 years (the actual age of the Earth is another topic). Several things were reinforcing this idea: chronological research into Biblical genealogy indicates Adam and Havah (Eve) lived about 6,000 years ago, a text attributed to Enoch indicated there would only be 6,000 years of man before the 7th millennium of rest, and the ancient Rabbis embraced a tradition that also portrayed a 6,000 year period (two thousand of chaos, two thousand of Torah, and two thousand of Messiah). Those things all seemed to reinforce the idea that Genesis 6:3 was pointing to 120 Jubilees before "THE END" (as I said, in my previous understanding).
But what now... what has changed?
No matter if you embrace the 49 year increment-view (as I do now) or if you embrace the 50 year increment-view, 120 Jubilees have already passed (and Messiah Yeshua hasn't returned yet).
Furthermore, the context of Genesis 6 and the plain meaning of verse 3 is simply "his days shall be one hundred and twenty years"... and if you plot out and compare the average ages of men who lived before Noah's Flood with those who lived afterward (as seen above), the average lifespan rapidly dropped from over 900 to below 120... and most Creationist scholars out there attribute that drop to massive earth changes at the time of the Great Flood judgment.
But now, the average life expectancies around the globe seem to be well below 120... hence many teachers (including myself) question the plain meaning of Genesis 6:3, but need we do so?
Men and women who live consistently within optimum health conditions frequently exceed the century mark (for proof on this point, read Dead Doctor's Don't Lie by Dr. Joel Wallach). Yet, rarely ever do we see men or women exceeding 120 years of age (which is the most critical point to focus on here). This reality, coupled with the plain meaning of verse 6:3, should be the most compelling meaning extracted from the passage in question. Extrapolating it to mean mankind will only live 120 Jubilee cycles until Messiah is an interesting (especially before Y2K), but largely baseless interpretation (especially since we're beyond the 120th Jubilee already).
The historical record supports the 49 year Jubilee increment with an overwhelming weight of evidence (see The Sabbath and Jubilee Cycle) and there is little to no evidence for connecting Genesis 6:3 to Jubilee cycles.
Hanok ben Isaak
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